Cameras to fix

[Bololoco]

I think i've reached the capacity of broken cameras i'd like to fix after having a fun and hopefully fruitful fortnight of buying things on ebay, so am listing everything I have bought in no particular order.



I'll give a brief description of everything I know that's wrong with each camera and hopefully i'll get some educational responses, such as which I should attempt first and whether you personally have successfully repaired anything on the list.



1. Weltaflex TLR.



This appears to work, although the viewfinder is quite dark. I understand that I can replace this but what i've looked at so far is quite expensive and would far exceed the price I paid for the camera. If anyone can suggest a cheap and cheerful upgrade that would be great. I have yet to take the glass out and clean it, so I understand that this should be my first point of call but cost effective upgrade suggestions will still be appreciated. Preferably under £10 as it's not worth bothering otherwise!



2. Olympus OM1n.

Everything seems to be working, but it apparently has some light leaks. I have looked at the seals and there are some in place but it won't harm me to remove what's there and replace them. Is there a video of a full strip down and CLA available? I can't seem to find one on youtube.

3. Olympus OM1.

Also appears to be working, although any lenses I put on the camera don't allow me to set the aperture. This isn't a problem when I put them on my digital camera. I have only tested it with Olympus lenses, so I take it the issue is with the camera and not the lenses.


4. Voigtlander Bessamatic.



Seems to be fine except that the shutter speed only seems to be settable between 500th sec down to 1/8th sec and B. I watched a Chris Sherlock video and have concluded that it was put back together incorrectly. I suspect that a full CLA will be needed as I have no idea when this was last done.


5, Kodak Retina Reflex iii.

Selenium meter isn't working. Even though this is a working camera, I intend to do a full CLA and understand that the contacts can be cleaned, which may or may not rejuvenate the light meter.

6. Kodak Retina IIIc (50mm f2 schneider kreuznach lens).

This seems to be fully working. It came from Fotohaus in Bern, Switzerland, the listing did say that it would benefit from a full CLA and that nothing of note was wrong with it other than that....this is astounding as they do camera repairs in store, so why they sold it is beyond me....especially at the incredibly low price I paid.

7. I have three front elements that fit the Retina IIIc f2 Schneider Kreuznach lens. They all came in their respective keepers and whilst they look ok will be cleaned.

8. Balda Baldixette

I don't think a lot can go wrong with this camera. It's essentially a box brownie. It'll have a basic shutter mechanism but might be educational all the same.

9. Olympus OM10.

This isn't a recent purchase but could be ok to learn from. It works ok as I have put a film through it successfully. However, I had one as a yoof, so know what to expect from it and the split screen focusing aid only works sporadically, so it could do with a bit of help.

10. Bronica ETRS Rotary Prism viewfinder.

Not clear. Looks like an oil slick! Hopefully quite straight forward.

I have several other SLR's (Zenit and Pentax) but have yet to dig them out of their storage boxes. I'll add to this list when I have them.

Several digital cameras also need fixing. Mostly more modern Olympus OM-D micro four thirds cameras but these are way beyond my current skills, although I hope to get around to them at some point. They're more educational than a necessity. I have seen some repairs on youtube and they look a hell of a lot more fiddly than older mechanical cameras. Maybe one day i'll be able to understand them enough to make a proper go of it.

I also have about 200 lenses which i'd like to CLA. Most are manual but a few digital ones, including my favourite Olympus M. Zuiko 40-150mm pro, which all of a sudden stopped zooming. It auto-focuses alright but is stuck at 40mm, so I guess it's become physically uncoupled inside. this may or may not be remedy'd at home. I hope so, it's an expensive lens, especially when it comes to paying OM Systems to fix it.

So, if anyone has experience with anything on this list, please let me know what I should expect. I'd also like suggestions on what to tackle first or which I should avoid until I get some better knowledge, although I am quite likely to give things a go at least to the point where I can put things back together again, even if I don't completely dismantle something, it's all learning.

 

[Duofold RF]

It depends on your time, experience, talent, and so on—some people are born mechanics, athletes, and the like. There are plenty of repair manuals on the internet.

 

[Leon C]

3. Olympus OM1.

Also appears to be working, although any lenses I put on the camera don't allow me to set the aperture. This isn't a problem when I put them on my digital camera. I have only tested it with Olympus lenses, so I take it the issue is with the camera and not the lenses.

Post a picture of the lens mount, my first thought would be the Aperture coupling ring could be stuck!

For the OM1 Service Manual go here:

Olympus Service Manuals

 

[Alpsman]

The only thing I feel confident about doing myself is changing the light seals.
Not that I'm clumsy, I'm a trained factory fitter, but the screws smaller than M3 are too small for my liking.

So, if I were you, I'd start by changing the light seal on the Olympus OM1n. That way, you get a feel for how to handle the camera.

Then I'd start looking for repair manuals online (archive.org) and familiarizing myself with the inner workings of the cameras.

Likewise, every camera is built differently. The engineers are admirably inventive in this regard.
And yes, you can learn almost anything. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Bololoco]

The only thing I feel confident about doing myself is changing the light seals.
Not that I'm clumsy, I'm a trained factory fitter, but the screws smaller than M3 are too small for my liking.

So, if I were you, I'd start by changing the light seal on the Olympus OM1n. That way, you get a feel for how to handle the camera.

Then I'd start looking for repair manuals online (archive.org) and familiarizing myself with the inner workings of the cameras.

Likewise, every camera is built differently. The engineers are admirably inventive in this regard.
And yes, you can learn almost anything. I wish you the best of luck.

Yes, the OM light seals seems like quite an easy job, although i'd like to give each and every camera a full CLA which means getting in to the inner workings, which means learning skills.

I have written a description of myself on my profile....I think I say something like "I have good eyesight and my hands don't shake", so hopefully that will stand me in good stead for some intricate work.

 

[Bololoco]

Post a picture of the lens mount, my first thought would be the Aperture coupling ring could be stuck!

For the OM1 Service Manual go here:

Olympus Service Manuals

Actually, i've just started reading the first manual and my head is spinning after a couple of sentences. A full strip down video may be a better resource if you know of any?

 

[Bololoco]

And i'll post some pics later when I get home

 

[Leon C]

Actually, i've just started reading the first manual and my head is spinning after a couple of sentences. A full strip down video may be a better resource if you know of any?

Never seen one on the www, plenty of seperate ones dealing with the usual issues but not a full CLA on its own unfortunately.

 

[Alpsman]

Yes, the OM light seals seems like quite an easy job, although i'd like to give each and every camera a full CLA which means getting in to the inner workings, which means learning skills.

I have written a description of myself on my profile....I think I say something like "I have good eyesight and my hands don't shake", so hopefully that will stand me in good stead for some intricate work.

Steady hands are a good start.
Don't underestimate the difficulty of changing the light seals. It can be very tricky to get these often sticky and smeary residues out of the grooves.

 

[KoNickon]

I almost fell out of my chair when I read that you have 200 lenses you want to CLA. That will keep you busy for a while!

Beware the complexity of lenses, especially SLR lenses (and zooms in particular). There is a wide variety of lens construction, and you should be very cautious when diving in.

Regarding the Weltaflex -- not familiar with that camera, but TLRs have a lot of similarities. You should be able to remove the viewing hood pretty easily -- look for four screws around the top edges. The hood should wiggle off -- note how it comes off for purposese of reinstallation. Dust off the underside of the focusing screen -- be very leery of cleaning the ground glass surface, though, since that could damage the surface.

I'd suspect that the reflex mirror has gotten hazy, which you can clean gently -- it's silvered on top, so too much pressure can remove the silvering. It may be becoming desilvered on its own. If the mirror is unusable, I'm not sure where you can get replacement material (much less a donor mirror from another Weltaflex). Others may be able to provide sources.

 

[JeffS7444]

OM-1: My first successful refoam job! I bought a precut sheet of foam, and IIRC, just followed generic instructions, using a bamboo skewer to clean old foam out of grooved areas (less likely to scratch than a metal tool). As for no aperture adjustments when lens is mounted to camera body, there's just a single lever for closing down the iris, so something may be blocking it.

Zenit: Assuming you've got common types (E, EM through 122 and 412), they're all largely similar.

 

[nanthor]

Well, you are in for some trying times, IMO. Olympus SLR bodies and lenses are very hard to take apart, they used strong locking fluid on some threaded parts back in the day. Lots of acetone soaking and perfectly fitting screwdrivers and spanner tools might help. Good luck! Bob.

 

[Bololoco]

OM-1: My first successful refoam job! I bought a precut sheet of foam, and IIRC, just followed generic instructions, using a bamboo skewer to clean old foam out of grooved areas (less likely to scratch than a metal tool). As for no aperture adjustments when lens is mounted to camera body, there's just a single lever for closing down the iris, so something may be blocking it.

Zenit: Assuming you've got common types (E, EM through 122 and 412), they're all largely similar.

I should have added that I have a Zenit 19 that doesn't seem to fire at all shutter speeds.....1000th second throughout. I have been using 2 LR44 batteries, which although kinda work (it lights up a red led on the body) could also be the reason why the shutter speeds aren't firing correctly....or so i've read.

If the batteries are not to blame, I have found absolutely nothing about its shutter electronics on the internet but refuse to believe that it's a dead end. It's only relatively basic electronics in a different language!

 

[Bololoco]

I almost fell out of my chair when I read that you have 200 lenses you want to CLA. That will keep you busy for a while!

Beware the complexity of lenses, especially SLR lenses (and zooms in particular). There is a wide variety of lens construction, and you should be very cautious when diving in.

Regarding the Weltaflex -- not familiar with that camera, but TLRs have a lot of similarities. You should be able to remove the viewing hood pretty easily -- look for four screws around the top edges. The hood should wiggle off -- note how it comes off for purposese of reinstallation. Dust off the underside of the focusing screen -- be very leery of cleaning the ground glass surface, though, since that could damage the surface.

I'd suspect that the reflex mirror has gotten hazy, which you can clean gently -- it's silvered on top, so too much pressure can remove the silvering. It may be becoming desilvered on its own. If the mirror is unusable, I'm not sure where you can get replacement material (much less a donor mirror from another Weltaflex). Others may be able to provide sources.

I found a seller on Ebay who sells bulk lenses for almost nothing and rather stupidly made a series of successful bids, hence so many lenses.

I've managed to get a good selection of Tamron Adaptall 2, Oympus, Voigtlander Dynarex (DKL), Tokina, KMZ, Helios, PMC lenses, most of which are in quite reasonable condition and i've had a few obscure lenses, some of which are surprisingly good (the Astral 135mm f3,5 is better than the Olympus lenses) but there's a lot of crud too.

The way I look at it is like someone mentioned in an earlier reply....it's a great way to collect tiny screws and bits.

I've also thought about making a lens from the offcasts, although my knowledge of 3d design and printing isn't particularly advanced but I could probably work out how to make interlocking threads to move elements or groups of elements back and forth along an axis! Hmm.

 

[JeffS7444]

I should have added that I have a Zenit 19 that doesn't seem to fire at all shutter speeds.....1000th second throughout. I have been using 2 LR44 batteries, which although kinda work (it lights up a red led on the body) could also be the reason why the shutter speeds aren't firing correctly....or so i've read.

If the batteries are not to blame, I have found absolutely nothing about its shutter electronics on the internet but refuse to believe that it's a dead end. It's only relatively basic electronics in a different language!

I dunno about that one: Capacitors? Electromagnets? Only electronic Zenit that I've owned is KM+, which is a completely different camera, and much newer.

 

[Bololoco]

I dunno about that one: Capacitors? Electromagnets? Only electronic Zenit that I've owned is KM+, which is a completely different camera, and much newer.

As I said, i've found absolutely nothing on the internet but surely some geek can reverse engineer a relatively simple circuit board from the 1970's.

Anyway, that camera is on a very distant back shelf. I have enough to get on with already!

 

[Leon C]

I should have added that I have a Zenit 19 that doesn't seem to fire at all shutter speeds.....1000th second throughout. I have been using 2 LR44 batteries, which although kinda work (it lights up a red led on the body) could also be the reason why the shutter speeds aren't firing correctly....or so i've read.

Diagnosis is a skill in itself or learning a method that suits the repairer, for me it's a matter of elimination and finding out how something works first and foremost, myself and others have bought 'broken' gear only to discover, work out or already know it was the sellers misunderstanding of how a certain camera might work and there is nothing actually wrong with it or something very simple.

In case of the Zenit 19 it could be something as simple as a corroded wire as the Zenit's only mechanical speed is 1000th of a second, so it sounds like it's not getting power at all as the rest of the speeds are electronic.

 

[Bololoco]

Diagnosis is a skill in itself or learning a method that suits the repairer, for me it's a matter of elimination and finding out how something works first and foremost, myself and others have bought 'broken' gear only to discover, work out or already know it was the sellers misunderstnding of how a certain camera might work and there is nothing actually wrong with it or something very simple.

In case of the Zenit 19 it could be something as simple as a corroded wire as the Zenit's only mechanical speed is 1000th of a second, so it sounds like it's not getting power at all as the rest of the speeds are electronic.

That is definitely a possibility. As I have said, that camera is on a distant shelf but i'll remember this suggestion when I eventually get around to looking at it.

Thankfully, there's a tear down video on youtube, so at least that action has been made easier, although I will get the proper batteries before I really go for it. Apparently a company called "Wein Cell" make exact alternatives, which may or may not be the problem as the LR44's are in reality, slightly under-powered.